Real judgements, distilled
Court judgements broken down into the case type, how the decision played out, and the lesson worth remembering, with the full judgement available as a PDF.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1073
In circumstantial-evidence cases, forensic and DNA evidence must actually corroborate the alleged crime: a conviction cannot survive where the most crucial scientific evidence, on its own terms, points away from rather than toward the prosecution's theory.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1074
A conviction based purely on circumstantial evidence requires every link in the chain, timeline, witness credibility, forensic matches, and motive, to be proven beyond reasonable doubt; gaps or suppressed evidence at any link entitle the accused to the benefit of the doubt, even in a serious case like a double murder.
Criminal Miscellaneous Case · 2026:DHC:8505
Courts will not quash a criminal case merely because the accused has a plausible alibi-type defence; unless that defence is conclusive and undisputed, the matter must be tested through the ordinary trial process.
Criminal Miscellaneous Case · 2026:DHC:8547
A private compromise between victim and accused cannot by itself secure quashing of a case involving serious, heinous allegations like attempted murder with a weapon: such matters must proceed to trial regardless of settlement.
First Appeal from Order · 2026:DHC:8563
Railway Claims Tribunals cannot reject a bona fide passenger's death claim based on speculative inferences when there is no direct evidence of an alternative cause of death; the compensation scheme under the Railways Act is to be interpreted generously in favour of victims' families.
Criminal Miscellaneous Case · 2026:DHC:8559
In matrimonial offences, courts can and do quash criminal proceedings once a genuine compromise is verified directly with the complainant, sparing both parties a prolonged and pointless trial.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8541
A co-accused's bail does not automatically extend to another accused where their actual roles in the offence differ materially; delay caused by one's own defence counsel cannot later be used as a ground for bail.
Execution Petition · 2026:DHC:8567
An arbitral award must be adequately stamped before a court can enforce it; courts give only a limited window to cure such defects, after which the award becomes legally unusable until the deficiency is fixed.
Arbitration Petition · 2026:DHC:8555
A genuine settlement reached through mediation renders a pending arbitration-related court petition moot, allowing parties to close out litigation quickly once they resolve their dispute privately.
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Legal Case Shots is a searchable database of Supreme Court of India judgments, each broken down into the case type, the court's key holding, and a practical lesson learnt, with the full judgment available as a PDF for citation or deeper reading.
SREI Multiple Asset Investment Trust Vision India Fund was the successful resolution applicant for Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd. (publisher of "Deccan Chronicle" and "Andhra Bhoomi"), which had gone through insolvency proceedings. Its Resolution Plan, approved by 81.39% of the Committee of Creditors and conditionally by the NCLT, gave it a "perpetual exclusive right to use" the company's brand names, but did not address who actually owned the trademarks. While disposing of a separate pending application, the NCLT went further and declared that the trademarks belonged outright to the corporate debtor: a declaration the NCLAT later struck down as an unauthorized alteration of the approved plan.
The Supreme Court agreed with the NCLAT. It held that once a Resolution Plan is approved by the CoC's commercial wisdom and by the adjudicating authority, it cannot later be modified or added to: an adjudicating authority acting on a separate application cannot expand the plan's actual terms (an exclusive right to use brands) into something the plan never granted (ownership of the trademarks). Relying on its earlier ruling in Ebix Singapore v. Committee of Creditors of Educomp Solutions, the Court reiterated that unregulated post-approval modifications undermine the integrity and timelines of the insolvency process. The appeal, along with two connected appeals that had become infructuous or were rightly dismissed below, was accordingly dismissed with no costs.
Once a resolution plan is approved in an insolvency proceeding, its terms are fixed. Courts and tribunals cannot expand or alter those terms afterward, even to grant a seemingly related benefit like trademark ownership, if the plan itself only conferred a narrower right (such as a right to use).
